Under the Mistle-Foe (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

JETT

“Okay, Mom. I got it. I’ll make our house the grandest and brightest for the lights tour!”

“It can’t be gaudy either, honey. It needs to be a bang but still be tasteful,” Mom insisted.

“Mom, don’t worry. I’m heading to the Festival Museum now to get some ideas from past houses.” Only after reassuring her did Mom let out a sigh of relief.

“Good, good. We want to make sure we’re all ready for the start of the light tour next week. I might not be there personally, but my reputation is still on the line!” There was a pause, then she added, “I’m sorry we can’t make it home for Thanksgiving. Are you sure you don’t want to come here for the weekend?”

I could hear the sadness in her voice. I knew she was upset about missing a family holiday together, but I was sure she was more depressed about not being able to return to Christmas Falls for this festival season.

Christmas Falls was her favorite place in the world—which was why our primary address was here instead of New York, where their company was located .

But I didn’t want to leave Christmas Falls now either. Like mother, like son. It was also my favorite place, now made extra special with a certain person back in town.

“It’s fine. Plus, would you and Dad even have time to spend with me with the negotiations going on? Isn’t that the whole reason why you’re missing the festival in the first place?”

A literal growl came from over the phone. I pulled it away from my ear to make sure that it was still my mom on the line. “Don’t these people take the freaking holidays off? Who pushes out deals during the most magical time of the year, anyway?”

She let out a huff of frustration, and I smiled. Mom was one of the kindest people I knew, unless someone tried to get between her and the Christmas Falls festival.

The software company my parents created twenty years ago had turned from a two-person team to having its headquarters in New York City. They’d never expected it to grow this big or that they’d catch the eye of a major corporation. And that was what led to this whole mess in the first place.

In the past few years, my parents had ideas of me taking on more of a leadership role within the company in the hopes I could run it one day, but I was happy simply coding behind the scenes. I didn’t want the stress of having the fate of hundreds of people on my shoulders, nor did I want to leave my charming little town.

Thankfully, my parents never pushed the issue too hard.

They’d always advocated choosing your own path in life and doing whatever made me happy. I was very blessed to have parents who let me be me. Whether it was my career choices or my sexuality.

When I was in college and told them I only liked men, they took it in stride. There was none of that, ‘Are you sure? Maybe you’re just confused’ bullshit that I’d heard some other people had to deal with. The only thing they showered me with was love and support, allowing me to be free to choose who I wanted to be and be with .

“Alright, I’m walking into the museum now. Tell Dad not to work too hard and get some rest,” I said as I opened the door and quickly entered the warm building. I loved Christmas Falls, but one thing I’d never grown out of was my sensitivity to the cold.

“Hey! What about me?”

Snorting, I retorted, “Do I even need to worry when you’re with Dad? He’ll shuffle you to bed at the first sign of fatigue.”

Mom laughed. “Your dad knows how to treat his partner right. Okay, love you, honey. Oh! Today’s the first day of the fair, right? Get me some local goods to heal my soul from all this overtime!”

I laughed and promised to add to her already full room of holiday decor she’d gotten over the years.

The Festival Museum was where the town kept memories of all the previous festivals. Inside the museum was Festival Hall, where they held the Arts and Crafts Fair, but the two areas couldn’t be any more different. The bustling of the fair sounded almost deafening in the silence of the empty museum.

A slender man had his back to me as he looked at one of the previous years’ floats.

“Hey Harvey,” I called out, causing him to jump.

“Shit! Jett! You scared the life out of me.” Harvey turned to me with a hand to his heart.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s fine. I just wasn’t expecting…” He gestured toward me.

“Me?” I supplied.

“Well, anyone, for that matter,” he said with a chuckle and scratched the back of his hair. “We don’t get many visitors around here. Anyway, what are you doing here?”

“I’m actually here to see you,” I started, and his eyes widening comically. “Since you spoke so highly of the museum during our date, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind showing me the past houses from the light tour. As a favor to a friend .”

“Okay, good. Because I thought we both agreed on the date we’d be better off as friends,” he said with a sigh of relief.

“Ouch,” I said and pretended to stab myself in the heart.

Panic flashed over Harvey’s face. “That’s not what I meant! You’re a great guy! It’s just we…we…” He waved his hand between the two of us.

I was starting to feel bad for teasing him, so I said, “Yeah, I know. We’re better off as friends. And I do mean that I’d like to be your friend.”

Harvey relaxed, and a smile crossed his face.

He was one of the first matchmaking dates Nick had set me up on. And while Harvey was a cutie and a genuinely kind person, there was no chemistry between us.

“So, for the light tour, you said? We have pictures of the previous winning houses over there.”

I followed him to a wall lined with photos of elaborately decorated houses. Some focused on the color coordination of the lights strung up around the house, while others had inflatables in their front yard to create a Christmas scene. The residents here really went all out for the festival.

Snapping some photos to study them more intently later on, I determined the first mission complete and turned to Harvey with a smile. “You have time to explore the fair with me? I’ve been sent on the very important task of shopping.”

“Sure,” Harvey said with a laugh. “I’ve been popping in and out of the fair all day. Tell me what you’re looking for and I can be your guide.”

“I get a personal tour? I must be lucky,” I teased. He chuckled as we walked to the Festival Hall where the fair was taking place.

We walked between the booths, Harvey telling me some of the cool wares he’d seen earlier in the day as I browsed for gifts that might appease my mom’s broken heart from being unable to partake in this year’s festivals.

A nagging feeling pricked my skin the entire time we shopped. The itchiness in the back of my head like someone had their eyes on me, but whenever I looked around, I didn’t find anything out of place.

There were a couple of instances where I thought I saw a familiar bob of brown hair, but I chalked it up to my imagination running wild again because I knew Remy was at the diner. I’d seen him there just a few hours ago.

We walked a few more stalls before Harvey said he had to check on the museum again. I walked him to the door and thanked him for keeping me company before I returned to the frenzy of shopping to finish my task. Nothing had caught my eye so far.

Stopping at a stall of homemade tree decorations, I found ornaments of Mr. and Mrs. Santa made to be regal-looking cats I thought Mom would get a kick out of. I knew it was the perfect gift to cheer her up.

Once the new pair of ornaments were purchased and wrapped up, that same nagging feeling returned. I flipped my head around and this time, found Remy browsing the stall behind me.

His eyes widened behind his glasses when I suddenly turned to him, and he quickly picked up the item closest to him and pretended to examine it.

That was very…interesting .

I wasn’t egotistical enough to think he’d been following me around this entire time, especially when Remy had acted like he’d wanted nothing to do with me for most of the time we’d known each other. But his current actions were very interesting indeed.

Grabbing my purchase, I made my way over to him as casually as I could. “Fancy seeing you here,” I said, stopping by his side and leaning close to him to examine the item that he was currently fixated on. It was a handmade ornament of a frying pan with sunny-side-up eggs as eyes and a sausage to make a smiley face.

“It suits you,” I said casually. “Just what I’d expect a chef to hang on their Christmas tree.”

“What are you…” Remy’s sentence cut off as his gaze quickly flicked to me, then back to the object in his hand.

“It’s for my dad,” Remy said quickly before rushing to check out. An adorable pink crept up the back of his neck, and I presume his face, but from my angle, his hair blocked me from finding out. I wanted to sweep his hair back to get a clear view of him but managed to resist the urge.

I’d told myself that I wasn’t going to act the fool around Remy again like I had in high school. I needed to keep my mouth and limbs in check.

Remy quickly paid, then left the Festival Hall like his ass was on fire.

“Are you heading back to the diner? I’ll walk with you,” I called out as I caught up to him.

His steps didn’t pause even as he glanced at me. “Are you going to sit there all afternoon again? When you left earlier today, I figured you were heading home.”

“So you did know I was there.” I beamed at him, which only had him walking faster. His time in the Big Apple had clearly taught him how to walk like a true New Yorker. His speed was double the leisurely pace that was normal for the folks around here. “Wait up!” I called out.

The wind was getting stronger, and with the speed Remy was walking, I hadn’t had time to put on my gloves. My fingers were the most sensitive to the cold, and they were already turning pink in the short time we’d been out here.

I blew into my hands and rubbed them together to generate some warmth. The speed-walking to catch up with Remy helped to raise my body temperature some, but I was still freezing. It pained me to know it would only get colder, with it still being November and all.

Remy must not have been serious about shaking me off because he slowed a bit when I lagged behind. Whether it was intentional, I would probably never find out. There was no way he’d admit it.

We stopped just around the corner from the front of the diner, nearing the parking lot. From my angle, I could barely see a bit of the graffiti that was sprayed on the front of the building last year. It depicted children building a snowman while snowflakes, ornaments, and presents floated down from above their heads. It had faded a bit, but the scene was still recognizable.

“I’m wondering why Dad hasn’t repainted the wall yet,” Remy stated, probably catching me staring in the graffiti’s direction. He grabbed something out of his pocket, pulled out a cigarette from the box, and lit up.

I frowned as a billow of smoke floated by. Was this another habit he’d picked up in New York?

“I’m the one with the bad boy name, so why are you the one trying to emulate the bad boy persona?”

“I think you still have me beat on that with all those tats of yours,” he said with a smirk, and I tried to capture the image in my mind, saving it in my very limited bank of the Remy Trent smiles that had been targeted at me .

Another puff of smoke blew past me, this time tickling my nose and causing me to sneeze. I’d never liked the smell of cigarettes much.

To my surprise, Remy stubbed out his half-smoked cigarette, making sure it was completely out before tossing it in a nearby trash can. I jogged in place as I watched his actions, trying to warm my body up again now that we were standing still in the elements. At least the building shielded some of the wind.

“If you’re cold, you should go inside.” I looked up at Remy’s voice.

“But you’re out here,” I replied automatically and instantly knew I’d fucked up. Remy’s conflicted expression only confirmed it.